On 2/27/2016 5:00 PM, Freelance Traveller wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Feb 2016 20:49:44 -0500, Joseph Paul
> <xxxxxx@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> I used to make gold liquid for a living. Occasionally it would disappear
>> down a hole too!
> *Actually* disappear? Or merely from your inventory? If the latter, I
> hypothesize that you are (or used to be) a dentist.
>
I was the caster for a jewelry manufacturer. Used lost wax process on a
big vacuum caster. All the 'trees' of wax rings are weighed and a proper
amount of gold to fill each mold is calculated including extra for the
'button' at the base of the tree. During a normal pour I would charge a
crucible with the gold for a specific mold (they were arranged in order
in the burnout oven and marked to boot)  and melt it. When it was
sufficiently above liquidus I would pull the flask and seat it on the
vac-caster then pour the molten metal while triggering the vacuum.

When it goes right you have a filled mold with a beautiful molten gold
sunrise for a button that has a high degree of reflectivity. Marvelous
to observe as is the eventual crystallization. When it goes wrong you
pour and wait for that button to come up and you are out of gold
and...there is nothing. Which means there are failed castings in the
mold and a mess inside the vacuum chamber because of a pin hole leak in
the mold!

Value of gold in the future may depend on its technical qualities. It
has a number of them.

SO what are the long entrenched arguments about Traveller tech and
economics?